All members of NASA safety panel resign

Tuesday, September 23, 2003 Posted: 5:26 PM EDT (2126 GMT)

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nine experts on a NASA space safety advisory panel have resigned in the wake of sharp criticism from the Columbia accident investigation board and by Congress, the space agency said Tuesday.

The members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel and two staff members of the panel sent letters of resignation to Sean O'Keefe, the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Glen Mahone, a NASA spokesman, said the ASAP chairman, Shirley McCarty, said in a cover letter to O'Keefe that the resignations "will give you and the Congress the freedom to revitalize the panel and reshape its charter and mission."

Mahone said the resignations were accepted and NASA is now in the process of evaluating the structure of the safety panel.

The ASAP was established after the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, which took the lives of three astronauts. That was the first major accident in the U.S. space program. Members include space engineers, scientists, former aerospace industry executives and military officers.

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In the wake of the Columbia accident, which killed seven astronauts on February 1, the safety panel was criticized by members of Congress as being ineffective.

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board said in its report that the ASAP lacked influence. Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee said the ASAP failed to spot potential danger signs in the operation of the space shuttle and that NASA should reconstitute the panel.